Technical Difficulties
by greenjelly16
Summary: You know," Ravyn said aloud, "I'm kind of starting to wish virtual reality wasn't quite so virtually realistic." Based on Vivian Vande Velde's books User Unfriendly and Heir Apparent.
1. Prologue: Before You Begin

_Once upon a time..._

_**Ravyn**_ stared distrustfully at the forest path ahead. Oddly shaped patches of sunlight leaked through the pine trees, and the soft sound of brook water trickling through rocks reached her pointed ears. It was very much the perfect, picturesque fantasy woodland scene, except for the gigantic, fanged killer plants leering at her from the sides of the path.

One particularly ugly plant lurched forward at her and she stumbled backwards, almost falling straight into the gaping mouth of a second waiting plant.

She let out a startled yell and scrambled away. The plants were Nependeaths, a black, smelly, lip-shaped monster that was fond of snacking on humans, small animals, elves, and any other semi-edible creature unfortunate enough to pass within the plant's striking distance without noticing. Luckily for Ravyn, this Nependeath didn't seem to be moving. _Maybe it's dead?_ she thought, picking up a stick off the ground and poking the plant's leaves. When the plant remained undisturbed, she slowly moved closer to get a better look. It was plastic.

"That is just beyond lame," she said aloud.

"What's beyond lame?" a voice asked from behind her. Ravyn turned to see her friend, Tsalina, had caught up with her at last. Tsalina's brown hair had come loose of their usual pigtails, and it was spiraling around her face.

"This," Ravyn answered, kicking the plastic plant. "It's fake."

"They put a fake killer plant in the middle of the road?" Tsalina sounded amused, but before Ravyn could reply, a loud roar interrupted their conversation. Both elven girls reached for their weapons instinctively as they turned towards the sound.

They only just had time to see an enormous, gleaming silver dragon descend from the sky, wings outstretched, tail soaring behind it, before the world went dark.

_This story was co-written with the help of several friends, including Glowfish36. They rock!_

_So, are you interested? Is it good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Please review and let me know what you think!_


	2. 1: Installing the Game and Signing In

**Chapter One: Installing the Game and Signing In  
**_"Set up of VR games is remarkably simple, as all the information is contained on the disc itself and very little installation needs to occur before you can begin your adventure... signing in is equally simple, as the Player Plug-Ins_TM _recognize your fingerprints and will log you in accordingly."  
_-VR-TI6 instruction manual, Chapter One

* * *

_**Stephanie **_twitched for a moment, not wanting to open her eyes. She felt calm, as though she had just woken from a good dream and maybe if she didn't move, she might be able to return to it…

"Thank you for playing the _YourFantasyTale_ demo," a mechanical voice recited. Stephanie groaned and pushed herself into an upright position as the monotone continued, "To live your own dream adventures, please buy the full version of the game from our GDMs for the low, low price of just 39.99…"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Stephanie muttered under her breath, rolling her neck to work out the cricks.

"I thought that game was pretty cool, actually," her friend's voice came from the other VR chair in the room. Stephanie glanced over at Juilliette, who hadn't moved or opened her eyes. Her brown hair was draped over the headrest of the chair, and one of her legs hung lazily off the edge of the footrest, her flip flop only half on.

"The game was great. The advertising needs a little work," Stephanie removed the VR headset, shaking out her own brown ponytail, and returned it to the hook in the wall next to her chair.

"I say we get this one," Juilliette finally sat up. "It was much less stupid than the _PinkPrincess_ game and much less bloody than the _DragonWarrior_ and _Escape the Dungeon_ games."

"Hard not to be," Stephanie snorted. "But you're right, this one's best." She pushed open the gray plastic door of their VR-TI—virtual reality total immersion—sampler booth. The specialist waiting outside smiled in a way that Stephanie thought seemed more sarcastic than friendly.

"Are you through, then?" she asked, voice proving Stephanie's assumption.

"Yes, thank you," Stephanie returned the cheesy smile. Juilliette walked up next to her, letting the door bang shut behind them. "Come on, Juilliette, let's go."

As they left, Stephanie thought she heard the saleswoman mutter something rude about stupid customers who played the sampler demos as a hobby but never actually bought anything and that she hadn't done six months of specialist training just to cater to them and at least she should get a decent salary for doing it.

"I don't think she meant for you to eavesdrop on that," Juilliette cut in.

"She wasn't exactly being quiet," Stephanie walked towards the Game Dispenser Machine near the cash registers in the front of the store. The GDM was a lot like a vending machine for video games, with a glass display case containing the game ads and a black retrieval slot above it, except it spoke to customers in a mechanical voice and required handprint ID to prove that the buyers were sixteen or older, which was good since Stephanie's low height made her seem much younger than she was. She was the type of person who was always stopped when she tried to buy PG-13 movie tickets.

As they stepped up next to the machine, Stephanie wondered if anyone's game had ever fallen out of the retrieval slot and hit them on the head, and if they'd sued the company for it.

The line was short, considering it was a Saturday afternoon; the only two people there were just finishing their purchase.

"Welcome," the same digital voice that the demo sampler had was used for the GDMs as well. "If you would like to buy a game, please place your palm and fingers flat on the scanning screen below. Remember that only those who are age sixteen and over are legally permitted to buy games."

"They say that, and I bet the machine would illegally permit someone underage to buy stuff," Stephanie muttered, but she pressed her hand to the scanner anyway.

"Stephanie Ryder, you are of age to purchase any teen games of your choice," the machine announced.

"Really? Aw, that's sweet of you! I'm flattered. I'll take _YourFantasyTale_ then, since I have your highly esteemed permission," Stephanie answered, drumming her fingers impatiently against the scanner. Immediately, a picture of the game's preveiw appeared on the screen eye level with her.

"_YourFantasyTale_ costs 39.99. Are you sure you would like to make this purchase?" The artificial intelligence appareantly decided to ignore her sarcasm.

"Yes, that's why I asked to buy it to begin with," Stephanie rolled her eyes. She liked technology, but conversing with artificially intelligent machines was not her favorite activity. She'd watched _The Matrix_ too many times.

"_YourFantasyTale_ purchase confirmed. Please insert cash in the slot to the left of the scanner."

Stephanie reached into her jeans pocket to find the money. Juilliette was already inserting a twenty-dollar bill into the machine, and Stephanie slid her own twenty in after, grimacing as screen lit up again. "Thank you for paying," it said, and there was a whirring sound as the game slowly rose from the glass preview window and through the retrieval slot. Stephanie reached up and grabbed it, turning to leave as the machine said, "Thank you for your business, Stephanie Ryder. We hope you will enjoy your game and please, come back soon."

"Wait," Juilliette said. "We paid forty dollars, and the game was supposed to cost 39.99. They owe us a penny." She jammed her hand into the slot, feeling around inside for the coin. The slot was thin enough that she only managed to get her fingers wedged in a few inches. "We're being cheated," she declared loudly, kicking the machine as though that would convince it to give up the money.

"It's just a penny, it doesn't matter," Stephanie sighed, but Juilliette was already calling to the woman behind the cash register.

"Excuse me, the machine swallowed our penny. We'd like it back, please."

Stephanie winced at the use of 'we'.

The woman pushed past both girls, and Stephanie was forced to hold her breath to avoid passing out from the extreme hair spray fumes emanating from her hair. Just as the woman approached, the machine spat a small coin out of the same slot the game had come from. It bounced off the woman's hair, which didn't even wobble.

"Oh. Well, never mind. Thanks!" Juilliette smiled brightly as she picked the penny off the floor.

"Dumb kids," the woman muttered.

* * *

_**Cornelius**_ was bored. He stared at his computer screen dully, not even really seeing the VR-TI6TM advertisement that was currently playing, barely even noticing that they were using his favorite loud and obnoxious advertising jingle. He was just starting to drift off into a doze when something on his leg _vibrated_.

Cornelius jumped about a foot in the air, letting out a very un-manly noise that his friend Stephanie would have called a squeal. He'd forgotten he'd left his cell phone in his pants pocket. The phone vibrated again and he grabbed for his leg, which was threatening to go into a spasm from the odd sensations.

"Hello?" he gasped into the phone speaker, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Hey, Cornelius, it's Stephanie," her familiar voice crackled over a bad phone connection. Either she was standing in the bottom of a reception-less pit or in the middle of a supermarket. Possibly both.

"Are you there? The connection's really lousy here," Stephanie's voice was louder this time.

"Yeah, I'm here," Cornelius managed to speak normally. He ran his hand through his dark blonde hair, pushing the longer pieces out of his eyes.

"Great. I'm in the parking lot of the VR store with Juilliette, and we've got a new game. If you're not busy, do you want to play?"

"Why are you in the parking lot? You don't have a driver's license," Cornelius felt the need to point out.

Stephanie let out an annoyed sigh. "We rode our bikes. Cars aren't the only thing in a parking lot, you know."

It was hard to tell over the bad phone connection, but Cornelius imagined her tone had changed into the kind of voice you use when you're speaking with someone very, very young, or very, very annoying. He didn't appreciate the use of either.

"I don't know. My parents aren't home right now, so you'd have to get a ride…"

"We're on our bikes," Stephanie repeated. "If you're busy or something, just say so."

As annoying as Stephanie's blunt manner could be, it was still better than boredom. "Nah, I'm just playing a computer game."

"KartRider?" Stephanie named his favorite game that he played almost to the point of being obsession.

"Er, yeah," Cornelius mumbled, not wanting to admit she'd been right. "Okay, well, I'll get the VR set ready. How long do you think you'll be?"

"Ten or fifteen minutes, maybe," Stephanie said. "Hey, Cornelius, do you mind if we invite Shaiya, too? We haven't seen her in a long time." Shaiya was another friend from school. She was a few years older but they rarely noticed the age gap when they hung out, which was happening less and less as school continued.

"Sure," Cornelius shrugged. "If you all bring your own Player Plug-InsTM, we'll have enough."

"Yeah, we've got them. Great, thanks. So, see you soon?" Stephanie sounded distracted. Cornelius thought she was probably talking on her cell phone and riding her bike at the same time.

"See you," he answered quickly, and hung up so Stephanie wouldn't crash her bike trying to do too many things at once.

The VR-TI6TM was sitting on top of the computer under his desk. It looked like a small, black, plastic box, and was entirely unimpressive. Small silver letters spelled out "Rasmussem Enterprises- Virtual Reality at Home" across the side and the emblem of VR-TI6TM was engraved into the top. A small flap of plastic lifted in the back to reveal several small plugs for the Player Plug-InsTM, and a disk drive slid out of the front to take games. It was the most advanced gaming technology on the market, the first home virtual reality set. It connected to the Internet servers, allowing technicians at Rasmussem Enterprises to keep an eye on all the gamers and fix any problems as they came up. The Internet connection also meant that when you played, you might meet characters played by gamers from all over the world, which was usually amusing, especially when they didn't speak the same language.

Cornelius pulled it out and set it on the table in the middle of his living room. Two sofas and two chairs surrounded the low table, perfect places for everyone to stretch out comfortably while they played. The pillows were slightly squished, but Cornelius didn't think his friends would mind. He rather doubted they would even notice.

Turning back to his desk in the corner of the room, he opened the side drawer to find his Player Plug-InTM had been consumed in a tangled mass of headphone wires, power cords, mouse connectors, and various adaptor channels. With a sigh, Cornelius sat down and began to unravel the mess.

It took the longest and most frustrating ten minutes of his life before Cornelius was finally able to pull his Player Plug-InTM free, and it seemed like only seconds later someone rang the doorbell. Loudly. Insistently. Repeatedly.

"I CAN HEAR YOU, STEPHANIE! GIVE ME A MINUTE!" Cornelius yelled at the door.

She rang the doorbell again in response.

**_

* * *

_**

**_Shaiya_** made her way up the long, steep driveway in front of Cornelius's house. It was a warm and breezy day, constantly blowing her black hair in her mouth. Finally arrriving at his front porch, she had just raised her hand to knock when the door was pulled out from under it. Cornelius grinned at her from inside. "Hey, Shaiya," he said, stepping aside to let her pass through.

"Hi, Cornelius," she answered. "Are Stephanie and Juilliette already here? They said they'd bought the new _YourFantasyTale _game."

"Just got here a few minutes ago, actually," Cornelis replied. "They're getting their Player Plug-InsTM set up. Did you bring yours?"

"Of course," Shaiya slid her backpack off her shoulder and opened it, showing Cornelius the small lump of cords inside.

"Come on, we've got the VR-TI6TM set up in the other room," he pushed open the sliding door that lead to the living room, where Stephanie and Juilliette were bent over the small black box, squinting through the dim light offered by the room's only window. They both turned to see Shaiya and Cornelius enter.

"Hey, Shaiya!" Juilliette called, grinning. "Glad you could come."

Shaiya nodded back, returning the smile. "Great to see you."

"We're about ready to play," Stephanie said. "You want to claim the sofa?"

"I've got the lounge chair," Cornelius said, pointing to his already laid out Player Plug-InTM.

"The sofa is fine," Shaiya said, setting down her backpack.

The Player Plug-InsTM took only a minute to set up, and it took Stephanie the same amount of time to work her way through the ten layers of plastic packaging surrounding the game disc. "Honestly, I think we spent more money on the package than the actual program," she complained, making a small pile of crumpled plastic on the floor next to her.

As Shaiya finished laying her things out on the chair and plugging in the last of her cords, Cornelius opened the disc drive and Stephanie slid the game inside. A cell phone sized keyboard and monitor slid out of two unused sides of the box.

"Hey, I've read about this game on the Internet!" Cornelius said excitedly as the title logo appeared on the screen. "There were even some cool cheat codes!" He reached for the keyboard and started typing.

Stephanie grabbed his arm, pulling him away. "What are you doing? We haven't even played the game yet! Maybe we don't need cheat codes."

Cornelius glared back at her. "They're really cool cheats though. They can advance us up to six levels of the game, so we don't have to go through all those useless training stages." He yanked his arm out of her grasp and went back to typing.

"Cornelius, she asked you not to," Juilliette said impatiently.

"Too late," Cornelius looked satisified with himself. "We're all level six gamers now.

Stephanie opened her mouth and Shaiya, sensing she was about to say something rude and possibly censorable, quickly cut in. "Can you change it back?"

Cornelius shot her an annoyed look. "Isn't anybody _happy_ that I saved us from the monotony of the beginner levels?"

"Is there a purpose to using big words like that or are you just showing off?" Stephanie muttered under her breath, but it was a much nicer comment than the one Shaiya had been anticipating.

Cornelius either hadn't heard Stephanie or chose to ignore her. "In any case, I can't change it back, so you should at least pretend to be happy about it." Shaiya suspected it was more that he didn't _want_ to change it back, rather than that he _couldn't_, but she decided not to point that out.

The room was silent for a long minute, and then Stephanie let out a sigh. "Well, I guess the beginner levels are sometimes kind of boring," she said finally. "As long as we're stuck with it, might as well enjoy it."

Juilliette raised her eyebrows. Shaiya glanced over at Cornelius, who was once again typing away on the keypad. He nodded after a minute and looked up again.

"I've put us in for a three-hour session. That gives us fifteen gaming days. It will select a quest at random for us, and since we're starting at level six, I've programmed us in with our usual characters." He was referring to previous VR games they'd played together.

"I want to change my outfit," Juilliette said, her usual smile returning. "If we're level six, I want something cooler than my old clothes."

"Like…?"

"I want a red skirt with gold edging and designs, and a band across-"

"Hold on," Cornelius cut in. "Maybe you should just program it in yourself."

"I don't know the codes," Juilliette pointed out.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and flopped back on the sofa, narrowly missing her Player Plug-InTM. Shaiya laughed and sat down next to her as Cornelius and Juilliette debated different fabrics for her gaming clothes.

"Cornelius is great," Stephanie said quietly, "but sometimes I just want to whack him over the head with an extremely hard blunt object."

Shaiya smiled. "Anger management issues?"

"I guess." Stephanie sat up again and returned to her normal voice. "You guys, is there really a difference between five percent Spandex and two percent?"

"My point exactly!" Juilliette cried out. "The top looks fine, Cornelius. We have to start playing soon or we'll run out of time."

Cornelius shrugged. "You're the one who has to wear it for fifteen days." He pressed a button on the keypad and it slid neatly back into the VR box.

All four settled comfortably into their designated spots—Stephanie and Shaiya on the two sofas, and Juilliette and Cornelius on the two lounge chairs. Shaiya took her Player Plug-InTM from where she'd set it down on the floor and slid the various parts on. The headset fit perfectly over her head, with two small ear buds attached that she slid into her ears. She slipped her hands into the black gloves and fastened the chestband around her ribs, just snug enough to be comfortable.

Closing her eyes, she leaned back into the couch pillows and let herself drift away as the world slowly darkened around her. A vague voice murmured, "Welcome to _YourFantasyTale_" just as Shaiya entered the game.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the prologue! The story really gets started next chapter, so please keep your support coming. I really appreciate it!

P.S. Juilliette is property of Glowfish36. Stephanie is completely 100 mine!


	3. 2: Becoming the Characters

_**Chapter Two: Becoming the Characters  
**"You will become your character for the first time through computer conditioning, where virtual memories and knowledge will be inserted into your brain through the Player Plug-In headset... while you will still remember who you are in real life, you will also have a second set of memories as vivid as if they were your own. Younger characters will start off with only a vague backstory, while older ones will have much more history, more background and connections..."  
_-VR-TI6 instruction manual, Chapter Three

_**Juilliette**_ opened her eyes slowly. She always took a moment to transition from reality to the game. Blinking several times, she sat up, glancing around to take in her surroundings, feeling lost.

The musty but comfortable scene of Cornelius's living room had vanished, replaced by a small musty but comfortable room that appeared to be built into an attic. The ceiling was sloped above her, and rays of sunlight leaked through a single round window in the wall nearby. The beams played off the glossy floors, making the wood in the room almost seem to glow. A small bed in the corner was covered by a worn but pretty patchwork quilt, and the only other furniture in the room was a small table in the corner. An unlit candle lay on the top, and Juilliette picked it up, rolling the wax object over in her fingers.

And then the computer conditioning started up.

She was suddenly caught up in a deluge of memories. Her name was Tsalina Gelorwya of Glenswergli Clan, and she was a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old elf with no family or other connections to speak of. A series of visions flashed quickly by her mind's eye—growing up happy in her clan's orphanage, leaving once she was too old to stay there any longer, receiving her parents' giant tome of magic at age fourteen, and finally leaving the clan a year later in search of adventures—but the memories were brief, and after a moment her vision cleared. She set the candle back down. Something was bothering her… there was something off about what she'd just seen, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

All quests started with a simple command: Find Rasmussem. The best way to do that, Tsalina decided, would be to ask people. And to ask people, she had to find people. And she had a very strong instinct that she was not going to find any people just by standing around in this room.

She pulled open a trap door in the floor, instinctively knowing that this would take her to the main inn room below. She dropped down easily, the door banging shut behind her.

Compared to other inns, this particular one wasn't too crowded. A lone barmaid stood behind a counter, wiping it with a green rag. Tsalina hoped the rag was originally green, and that the color hadn't come from whatever the girl was wiping off the counter. She approached the bar, ignoring the two fairly rounded men sitting nearby.

"Hi," she said to the girl, smiling.

The girl glanced up and nodded in reply. "Hey."

"I'm Tsalina Gelorwya of Glenswergli Clan," Tsalina introduced herself, enjoying the feel of the names as they rolled off her tongue as easily as if she'd done it all her life.

The girl failed to contain a derisive snort. "My name's Natalya of the Barmaid Clan." She snorted again.

Tsalina had not realized how unpleasant a snort truly sounded until she'd heard this girl. "So, Natalya, I'm looking for Rasmussem."

"Which Rasmussem?" Natalya asked. "There are hundreds around this forest."

"I don't know," Tsalina shrugged. "What is Rasmussem, anyway?"

Natalya looked as though she thought Tsalina had asked something exceedingly stupid. "It's a tree. Specifically, a type of very old tree with magical powers."

"Do they grow around here?"

"I just said that," Natalya sounded annoyed now. "There are hundreds in the forest nearby."

Tsalina smiled again. "Thanks, Natalya. That was really nice of you."

"Whatever," Natalya went back to wiping her counter.

Tsalina slid past the two large—and, as she now noticed, extremely smelly—men and headed outside. As she passed the door, she couldn't help but notice her reflection in the glass of the window nearby. She thought she looked rather nice. The computer had corrected a lot of the flaws in her features, including what she considered to be far too large ears. They were nicely pointed now, and her hair had been divided into two pigtails that trailed down her back…

Tsalina squinted and leaned closer to the glass, trying to make out her image properly. Something still looked wrong…

And then it hit her.

"Cornelius, you really messed up the Spandex this time," she muttered under her breath.

* * *

_**Shaiya **_had barely opened her eyes to see she was standing in the middle of a sunny, deserted field when she was lost in a flood of her character's computerized memories.

"_Dracovia, look at this," a six-year-old Irinilia cried excitedly as she clambered on to a stool next to desk. She unrolled a scroll on the table as the man dressed all in black, who the computer informed her was a mage, specifically a necromancer by the name of Dracovia, leaned over her shoulder. A small diagram had been drawn by sloppy childish handwriting, the writing shaky and uncertain but the picture strong and clear, done in many different colors of ink._

"_Irinilia, that's perfect!" Dracovia rested his hand on her shoulder in a kindly way. "Uh… what is it supposed to say underneath?" He pointed to one of her messier scrawls._

_She sighed. "Medallion of Life, of course!" She had drawn the medallion above its label, colored green and with a star design in the center. "And that one's the Medallion of Death," she pointed to the black necklace with a picture of a nondescript body in the center of the charm, "and that's the Medallion of Birth!" The last picture was gold and simple._

"_You're a wonderful artist, my dear," Dracovia said with fatherly affection._

"_I'm going to draw their guardians next," Irinilia hopped down from her stool and ran off to find another sheet of paper. Behind her, Dracovia bent over her scroll again, with a much more serious intensity in his gaze._

Irinilia shook herself out of the memory, but was immediately hit with another one.

_She was ten now, much more intelligent and much less innocent than last time. Every time she so much as glanced at Dracovia, she saw something she didn't want to see, a sort of coldness hidden under the appearance of the same man she'd grown up with since before she could remember._

_She knew he was a mage—she'd known it since she was old enough to know what a mage was!—and she knew he was not her birth father, knew he had taken her, newly orphaned, from the Mithalinya Clan as a baby and raised her as his own. But now he kept secrets from her, not allowing her into his study at the top of one of the castle towers. He locked himself in there for hours on end, working on some unknown project. She hadn't been there in years, waiting in the dining hall to show him her drawings, drawings that he barely even looked at._

_Something had changed, and Irinilia was determined to know what._

_She had waited until past midnight because she knew that midnight was the hour of magic, when power was the strongest, and she doubted Dracovia would sleep through that. Finally, at two o'clock, she was unable to wait any longer and crept out of her bedchamber._

_Her steps were almost silent as she crossed the hallway. The door at the end was locked, as it had been for years, but she was smarter now. A quick word and touch from her, and the door sprang open. One of the many tricks she'd picked up, unknown to Dracovia, from his library of magic scrolls._

_The stairs were long and winding, but Irinilia climbed them as easily now as she had when she'd been an excited six-year-old. Before long she found herself in the study, kneeling on the stool she'd sat on so long ago when she would spread her drawings across the table for Dracovia to exclaim over._

_The scrolls were very different now—older, darker, more fragile. Her long and slender fingers spread them across the table. She could see long lines of letters and symbols written across the paper, but it was too dark to read them clearly. No matter—another muttered word and the room glowed with soft, magical light._

_They were scrolls of Dark Magic, evil spells. This was not a shock to Irinilia, as she and Dracovia were, after all, Dark Mages, but what startled her was the specifics of the Dark Magic Dracovia was studying._

_He was actually trying to find the Medallion of Death._

_Irinilia's thoughts flashed back to the item she'd drawn so long ago. It was a device of torture, meant to cause slow pain and an agonizing demise, but of course she hadn't known this when she was six. Then, it had just seemed like another one of those lost magic items that there were so many of. Now, she knew the truth._

_Horrified, Irinilia backed away from the scroll, not even bothering to set it back the way she'd found it. A muttered word vanished the light, and Irinilia fled back to her bedroom._

_Dracovia couldn't have known that she was the one who was there, of course, but things were never quite the same after that._

Parts after that flashed by in much less detail. As Dracovia had grown more withdrawn, she had retreated to the woods near the castle more and more often. She made friends with the animals there, hummingbirds and squirrels mostly, and even befriended a dragon named Tristo for a few months before he rejoined his family, but after awhile came to miss human company. That was what led her to the village, where a kind hedgewitch had taught her magic that Dracovia never had.

Light Magic.

Irinilia was intelligent and learned quickly. She kept a leather notebook with all her notes on all the spells she had learned and several she'd invented herself, and as time went on, she started to record her daily thoughts in it as well. Sometimes she made mistakes, confusing directions and forgetting parts of the instructions the woman gave her, but her new teacher was always patient and kind. The hedgewitch came to be like a mother to her, and she loved the woman dearly. It seemed only right that she should do something in return, so she asked Dracovia if she could bring the woman some potions as a present.

"_A PRESENT?" he roared. "What the hell do you need to give her a present for?"_

_Irinilia, now fourteen and a cocky young teenager, was not as frightened by his anger as she should have been. "She's been very kind to me, and she doesn't have much money, so I thought--"_

"_No you didn't, wench, or you wouldn't have come asking me for a bloody present," Dracovia snarled. "What did she ever do for you except take advantage of this land that will someday be yours?" He was always reminding her that the land would someday be hers, and Irinilia found it to be very tiresome._

"_I don't want the land, Dracovia, I want to be an adventurer. And besides, I go see her nearly every afternoon…"_

"_So that what you've been doing when you should have been studying!" Dracovia was going red in the face from all his yelling, but as Irinilia frowned, he attempted to control himself. "I shall give her a proper present, you can be sure. I forbid you to see the woman again. In fact, you shall not leave the castle until you've caught up with your studies!"_

_It wasn't until weeks later that Irinilia found out that Dracovia's "present" had actually been a drawn-out and tortured death for the kind old lady, but it was only seconds after that when Irinilia realized he had found the Medallion of Death._

Irinilia shuddered. Where was all this coming from? She had programmed in a normal childhood, something warm and pleasant—not this monster of an adoptive father or a death worthy of a horror movie for a woman she'd considered a mother!

The rest of the memories were less detailed. Irinilia supposed nothing could compare to the power of the last memory. After learning of the hedgewitch's death, she had stolen Dracovia's secret scrolls as well as the Medallions of Death, Life, and Birth, all of which Dracovia had somehow acquired while Irinilia was spending her days away from the castle. Taking with her only one favorite green dress and leaf necklace, she'd bundled the scrolls, the medallions, and his magic staff into a bag and fled one night at two o'clock, the same time she'd used long ago to sneak into his study. In the five years since then she'd stayed hidden, living in small towns and villages or camping in the forests. She'd grown her hair down to the waist and styled it into waves that conveinently covered her half-elf ears, just to make it that much more difficult for Dracovia to identify her. She was an average-looking person, and she blended into crowds well.

But even though all that time had passed and she'd never seen a hint of Dracovia, she knew her betrayal was one he'd never forget, and she was sure it was only a matter of time before he would find and kill her.

Irinilia sighed. Why couldn't she have gotten an easy game scenario? Why was she stuck with the maniac bent on death and destruction? She bet Cornelius had nothing harder than pop-the-balloons-before-the-time-runs-out.

Which would have been boring in a video game, but in virtual reality, she was willing to take any shortcut she could.

_**

* * *

**_

_**Stephanie**_ opened her eyes to see a purple frog inches from her nose.

Scrambling up to her feet, she glanced around frantically. She appeared to be in the middle of a forest, judging by the unnaturally high number of trees nearby. A small pond was less than a foot from where she had landed; she suppposed she was lucky she hadn't ended up _in_ it. The frog that had freaked her out croaked loudly and hopping into the water with a loud splash.

She only had a few seconds to wonder if perhaps Cornelius's hacking had made a mistake, and somehow left her without a computerized background, when the conditioning kicked in.

And she became Ravyn Pallanén, level six elven warrior of the famous Aladríonym Clan. She reached up, her armguards and gloves stretching with her arm, to feel the smooth wood of a longbow strapped to her back and the smooth leather of her quiver. The fletching of her arrows brushed along her gloveless fingertips as she felt her weapons, and realized that Ravyn knew how to use them, and had done so on many occasions—along with the ability to do some very basic healing magic, throw knives (and she had several of said weapon hidden in various places about her person), speak the Elven Language, perform simple acrobatics, and walk silently though a pile of broken glass.

Quite a far call from Stephanie Ryder.

Ravyn stepped into the edge of the pond, the water lapping at her black elven style boots. Leaning over slightly, she stared at her shimmery, distorted reflection. Her character had been changed little with the new game—pushing back the hood of the black cloak that she had wrapped around her body, she swung out her long black braid with electric blue streaks running through it. Some of the hair in front had come loose and hung around her face, blowing slightly in the breeze drifting by. Her eyes were a sky blue color, exactly the kind she liked best, and her skin was clear and only slightly tanned. But what she enjoyed most were her ears, the pointed elven ears that only partially showed out of her hair.

Ravyn even flattered herself that she might be a little bit pretty.

Shaking off her vanity, she stepped out of the water, shaking the drops off her boots. She had to find the others and get started on the quest. The only instructions she had to go off was to find Rasmussem. Somehow, she really didn't think Rasmussem was the purple frog.

Not knowing what else to do, Ravyn started walking blindly through the trees, hoping some sort of computerized instinct would take her where she wanted to go. The thick black armor complete with kneeguards she wore under her blue shirt and pants made movement awkward at first, but she adjusted her stride after the first few steps and was soon stepping comfortably, smoothly, almost _gracefully_.

Now she really knew she wasn't Stephanie Ryder.

Wandering aimlessly appeared to be key in this game, because after walking for less than five minutes, she almost smacked straight into a wizard who was slightly taller than she was. His orange hair was thick and tangled, and he wore the armor of a knight warrior. "Hey, watch where you're going," he snapped as he turned around, and then paused. "Oh, Ravyn, it's you."

"It's me," Ravyn answered, recognizing him as Tylus, Cornelius's main character. "Did you get dumped in a manure pile or something?"

"Do I smell?" he asked, lifting his metal covered arm to his nose.

"No, you just seem rather grumpy," she shrugged in reply.

"Had a run-in with some noobs," he said. "Level one thieves who think I don't notice that they're standing right behind me. And that was the grand adventure of Tylus up to this point. Where have you been?"

Ravyn shook out her cloak slightly, and a small clump of dirt fell from the edge. "Exploring the joy of multicolored frog diversity," she said.

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Ravyn glanced at the forest around them. They were standing in a small clearing, surrounded by ancient, cracked trees. "Do you think the others will find their way here?"

"Sure," Tylus shrugged. "It's Rasmussem, isn't it? The computer generated characters will eventually just tell them to come here."

Ravyn glanced around again. The clearing didn't appear to be anything special. "You're sure this is Rasmussem?"

"You're here too, aren't you?"

Ravyn decided not to point out that her arrival was entirely due to dumb luck and chance, and that she had absolutely no idea where, who, and/or what Rasmussem was.

They stood there in awkward silence for a very long minute before Tylus finally spoke again, sounding excited. "Look at this, I want to show you something." He pressed his hand to the ground and muttered something that sounded like 'left, right, up, square, circle, left, down'. Immediately, the grass flipped upside down, so the green disappeared into the ground and a thick mat of tangled light brown roots were left where the grass had been moments before. "Ground inversion cheat code, isn't it awesome?"

Ravyn stared at him blankly. "Is there a _point_ to inverting the ground?"

Tylus shrugged. "No, not really, it's just cool."

"Er… right then," Ravyn turned to see a half-elf with long, shimmering black hair and a long green dress approach, weaving her way through the trees. "Look, I bet that's Irinilia- Shaiya," she clarified.

Irinilia joined them, smiling slightly. "Hey," she said hesitantly, as though not entirely sure it was really them.

"Hi, Irinilia," Ravyn answered. It never occurred to her that she might not really be Shaiya—glancing around, their characters were unmistakable— Tylus with his thick armor and with more weapons visibly attached around his body than probably everyone else in the game combined and Irinilia, her elven ears just barely visible through her hair and her mage staff secure in her belt. And just arriving to join their group now…

"Uh, Tsalina? Is that you?" Ravyn asked hesitantly.

She scowled in response. "Ughhhh...I really hope this is your idea of a great joke," she spat at Hyper. "Really funny. Now where are the cool things I asked for?"

Tylus stared at her for a minute. "Tsalina—Juilliette?"

"Yes it's me!" she shouted. "Look at me! What was this for?" She fingered her cloak disgustedly.

Tsalina looked significantly smaller than everyone else. Some sort of mud was smudged across her cheeks and she looked very, very angry. But most concerning of all, instead of the beautiful red skirt, black shirt, and white healer's cloak she had designed especially for her character, she was wearing the ragged, gray cloak of a Level One beginner.

"Crap," Tylus muttered.

**

* * *

**

**Tylus **thought he'd done rather nicely with his hacking job, but Tsalina had somehow been a mistake.

But that was all right, because everyone made mistakes, and he made fewer than most. At least his own armor and weapons were intact and quite impressive.

His character, Tylus of Grotti, was, on the whole, quite impressive. His father was the chief of a nearby a town, Quiez, where he'd grown up. His mother was a well-respected mage of ice and creation powers. It was a nice life, but it was boring.

A traveler had come to Quiez when he was fourteen and described the beauty of other towns throughout the world—Negonitia, Scapilia, Lysle—and, fascinated, Tylus had run away with him.

The traveler turned out to be a con artist who bashed Tylus over the head a few times, took his money and all but his underwear, and dumped him in the slums of Negonitia, a city that seemed to be on some hard times. Within a day of his arrival, the recruiters had come around in search of young human boys to be knight warriors. Tylus was as strong and as fast as any street rat and he'd had some training from his father. He was selected almost immediately, and trained for almost three years with a group of other boys.

Now he was seventeen, a level six knight warrior, and ready for whatever adventure came his way.

"We'll get our quest now and you can train along the way," he said to Tsalina now, eager to get started.

"I don't think so, Tylus," Ravyn cut in. "We're all level six and she's level one. She'll be totally out of her league. She should at least get some basic training before we go."

"But training's boring, that was the whole point of skipping past it," Tylus complained.

"You were the one who messed up her character," Ravyn said pointedly. "I didn't want to skip levels at all. She's entitled to a training course if she wants one, and you're just going to have to deal with it."

"We only have fifteen gaming days here, she doesn't have time," Tylus began but Ravyn cut him off.

"If Tsalina wants training, she's going to get it," she turned to Tsalina. "What'll it be?"

"If you don't mind," Tsalina began a little hesitantly, "I'd like a little bit before we go, maybe just a speed course or something?"

"I'm sure they have that as an option," Irinilia said. "It wouldn't take that long."

Tylus shrugged. "Let's at least get the quest first, so Ravyn and Irinilia and I can plan while Tsalina trains." Secretly he thought he might just take the assignment and go do it while the rest of them hung around the noob camps, but he didn't say it.

"You desire a quest?" the tree behind them said, and they all jumped. Tylus turned to face the plant, squinting at the scraggly bark. The tree almost seemed to smile, and through the knothole on the side of the trunk, spoke again, "There lies a kingdom that has long been oppressed by those who seek to exploit its only weakness."

"Not to interrupt when you're trying to be all poetic and dramatic and stuff," Ravyn said, "but do you mind just saying what we have to do straight out?"

"I am trying to, elf," the tree said grumpily. "You young people, always in a hurry. Where was I? Ah, yes, it is being oppressed because it is rightfully ruled by any and all who hold the Spoon of Justice."

"The Spoon of Justice?" Tylus said incredulously. "I've never heard anything more ridiculous in my--"

"Would you stop interrupting when I am trying to tell you your grand destiny? Yes, the kingdom is rightfully ruled by he or she who holds the Spoon of Justice and from it, drinks the Soup."

"Just soup? Any soup? Not the Soup of Self-Righteousness or the Soup of Eternally Aggravating Doom?" Ravyn asked.

"It is the Soup of Power," the tree either missed Ravyn's sarcasm or chose to ignore it.

"That seems like a faulty way to choose a ruler," Tsalina said.

"It is faulty," the tree replied. "Which is how it came to be ruled by a tyrant, as it is now. Tyranny is never a good thing. The people are being oppressed and the kingdom is on the brink of collapse. Your quest is to retrieve this Spoon of Justice and use it to drink the Soup of Power to override this tyrant's power."

"Four rulers?" Irinilia said doubtfully.

"Oh, it doesn't need to be all of you," Tylus could have sworn the tree was laughing as it continued, "In fact, in the end, only one person actually ends up as ruler. But I'll leave you to find out the ending for yourself."

"Wait," Tylus started, "Only one of us gets to rule?" But the tree was just a tree again, and it didn't respond.

"Sounds like fun," Ravyn broke the silence that followed Tylus's question. "By the way, did anyone happen to hear where exactly this oppressed and tyrannized kingdom is?" Tylus stared at her, realizing for the first time that the tree had been unhelpfully vague in its directions.

"Oh, you young people," the tree groaned. "It's this kingdom, obviously."

* * *

**Please review and let me know what you think! Did it make you laugh? Did it make you cry? Did it make you crave soup? I want to hear it all!**

**Juilliette/Tsalina still belongs to Glowfish36.**


	4. 3: Welcome to Newbie Town

_**Chapter Three: Welcome to Newbie Town  
**"As any experienced gamer will tell you, once your player has become significantly advanced in skill, beginner towns are to be avoided at all costs. You simply don't have time to waste while newbies try to convince you to train them, and all the administrators know that as an advanced player, you have extra money to throw around, and they make sure to factor this in when calculating prices."  
_-Gaming Tips for Players from Players, Chapter Seven__

_**Irinilia **_ended up being the one to accompany Tsalina to the training camp. Tylus was still bitter from his last run-in with what he called "noobs" and refused to go to the beginning town at all. Ravyn joined them to the city border, but then separated to visit the shops.

"I'll get you some pineapple and tiramisu," she named two of Irinilia's favorite foods, laughing, and then disappeared into the crowd, most of whom were dressed in drab gray cloaks like Tsalina's.

"I think the training camp is over there," Tsalina said, and Irinilia was left to follow her over to the brightly covered tent, complete with a large "BEGINNERS COME HERE" sign flashing from its top.

A large crowd of newcomers to the game were already clustered around the tent. Irinilia glanced around. "Let's see if we can squeeze through the side," she suggested, and Tsalina followed her as they ducked around elbows and sidestepped several dwarves, finally pushing their way into the tent.

A bored looking man was lounging on a pile of pillows behind a low wooden desk. "Are you helping her train?" he asked, his black eyes focusing on Irinilia.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. I brought Tsalina here to do a speed training course so she can come with me and my friends on our quest without getting killed straight off," Irinilia said. Tsalina stepped up to the desk, and the man turned his gaze to her.

"You're a newbie if I ever saw one," he grumbled. "Have you ever even held a weapon before?"

"Nope," Tsalina maintained her cheerful expression. "That's why I'm here, isn't it?"

"We were hoping she could get some short course," Irinilia said. "We'd like to start our quest within a few days, so is there any way she can be ready by then?"

"Five day minimum," the man said. "And that'll cost you a pretty penny, if you want her to be trained enough even to survive a few days with you. You level six?"

"About," Irinilia said. "We can afford to pay."

"I'm not included in the _we_, am I? Because I'm broke," Tsalina whispered.

"Ravyn is trying to get Tylus to chip in, but even between the two of us we have enough," Irinilia muttered back.

"Write your full name on this sheet of paper," the man ignored their side conversation, pushing a wrinkled and dirty piece of paper towards Tsalina, his quill pen leaving a trail of ink across the names already on the paper.

"Clan name too?" Tsalina asked, and the man nodded.

Irinilia glanced around the tent while Tsalina practiced her calligraphy signature. The place was lavishly decorated, with purple scented candles mounted in golden lamps hanging from the ceiling. The ground was covered by a thick red rug, marred only by the mud tracked in near the entrance by a succession of newbies. The man himself was dressed richly, covered in silk, velvet, and jewels. He was plump and his hands were soft— clearly he did not lack any of the comforts available to staff members.

"Now what?" Tsalina set the quill pen back down on the table.

The man took the paper back and pointed to a long line of stones on a shelf across the side of the tent. "Touch the third one from the left, the one glowing green. It'll take you to your trainer. Her name is," he glanced down at the floor, apparently consulting something, "her name's Selaya."

Tsalina walked over to the rock. "It's pretty," she commented, and reached out to touch it.

Just before her fingers met the rock, a young woman burst into the tent from the back side, opposite from where Irinilia and Tsalina had entered. "Wait!" she called out. "You can't send the newbies to Selaya right now, she's in the middle of a battle!"

But by then Tsalina had already grasped the rock. Her image shimmered in the air for a moment, and then she vanished.

"What was that?" Irinilia demanded. "Get her out of there! She's still a newbie; she's not ready for a battle yet— she hasn't trained at all."

"It's too late now," the man said lazily. "Selaya can take care of her. Your friend will be fine. You can meet her here tonight or you can leave a message with her." He nodded to the young woman who'd just entered.

"I'm not a mail lady," the woman snapped. "Deliver your own messages, and as for _you_," she kicked at the man, "double check with the trainers before you start randomly sending them newbies!" She stormed back out of the tent, muttering something rude under her breath about incompetent, lazy administrators.

Irinilia stared at the man for a long minute, a thousand rude names she would have liked to call him running through her mind, but she decided it was probably a bad idea to say any of them to his face. "We expect to get a discounted rate for this," was her only comment.

"Whatever you like," the man said. "You pay by the level. Five thousand gold for every level up."

"Five thousand?" Irinilia said. "That's ridiculous."

"You asked for the speed course, and I told you that it's expensive," the man was undisturbed.

"You can't even manage to do your job properly and you have the nerve to demand five thousand gold per level up?" Irinilia snapped. "Not paying a cent over two thousand."

"Five thousand, take it or leave it," the man said.

"Considering you already sent Tsalina to her training, I can't really leave it, can I?" Irinilia said pointedly. "Although I don't mind getting it free."

The man scowled. "Smart mouth. I'll compromise for you at three thousand five hundred, and let me tell you, that's one incredible deal you're getting."

"Three thousand," Irinilia said. "That's the standard rate and you know it."

The man rolled his eyes. "With tax that comes to three thousand five hundred."

"Tax is only three hundred."

"You've got yourself a deal."

Irinilia smiled to herself, turned on her heel, and left the tent. She was pretty sure she had a spell somewhere in her notebook for turning stone into fake gold…

_**Tsalina**_ had only just heard the woman say "she's in the middle of a battle!" before the rock's spell took effect and she was magically transported from the tent. She didn't even fully comprehend the meaning of the words until an arrow whistled by, inches from her nose.

"What's that moron thinking, sending me newbies now!" a woman was suddenly practically on top of her. She reached out with the hand that wasn't holding her bow and forced Tsalina to the ground. "Get down, out of the way!"

Tsalina glanced up from her position on her knees as the woman shot off several arrows in a row. "Are you Selaya?"

"Yes," the woman answered, "although names are slightly irrelevant at the moment." She loaded her bow again and aimed. Tsalina followed the line of the arrow with her eyes to a group of goblins storming towards them. An arrow suddenly shot over her head and buried itself into the body of the leading goblin. He fell forward and the others trampled over him.

"What are you doing?" Tsalina asked. "Is this some kind of training exercise?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Selaya snapped from behind her. "This is a battle, and I'm trying to be the winner." Several more arrows flew past Tsalina; each found their target and each goblin fell.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" Tsalina was feeling slightly nauseated.

Selaya let out a bitter laugh. "You've obviously never been to war, kid." She drew her mahogany longbow and released the thin string sharply. The arrow sliced through the air and soared into the remaining goblin's throat. He quivered for a minute, his dusty silver eyes turning towards the pair before he crumbled to the ground, his hands still clutching his long silver sword.

The life swept from him like a candle in water, extinguished. A gold glow stretched from his body, driving up and up, pulling and tugging, and with a quick slice, it severed, and he was dead. Tsalina sucked in gasp as Selaya let out a cold chuckle. The goblin was lying still now.

_Was he really dead? Gone from the world, never to talk to others? His molecules just drifting about in pain? Or maybe the game had taken him to…that nothing land, the terrible place of loneliness Stephanie and Cornelius had described as being the land of the dead. Was he cursed to drifting about for five days? Then was he a real person too? A real person playing a virtual goblin and feeling the pain of that terrible arrow in his neck?_

Tsalina felt tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of the goblin's life force drifting steadily away like silver smoke. She turned to Selaya who sighed quietly and shouldered her longbow, "We're done here. We're going back to my tent, and I'll do what I was supposed to do when you arrived. Sort you."

The walk was short and silent, and soon Tsalina found herself sitting hunched over Selaya's ankle high table. Her tent was nice, not elegant or fancy, but very simple, and considering she only had one horse to carry it, the perfect size. The small table was the only real furniture apart from several blankets, and it was positioned so that a beautiful ray of sunlight drifted right on the surface, heating the wood and making it almost glow.

Selaya was apparently the one who was supposed to 'choose the path' depending on several 'soul qualities' that Tsalina was supposed to have. And though she said she would choose if Tsalina was meant to be a mage, warrior, thief, or ranger, the most important change in Tsalina's game life, Tsalina found that she didn't want to think about it. The death of that goblin just wouldn't leave her.

Selaya shifted slightly next to Tsalina, tiredly polishing her mahogany longbow. Tsalina sighed and turned to face towards her. "Selaya? Don't you regret killing those goblins today?"

Selaya looked at her curiously. "It's not my decision. They chose to break the law, and I was ordered to kill them." She paused stiffly then stood up gracefully and began to pace. For the first time, her long black hair shifted and Tsalina saw her ears were elegantly pointed, just like her own. Selaya was obviously an elf.

Tsalina sat up a little as Selaya began to speak again, her voice almost a whisper. "This is terrible, after your first encounter here nothing can affect your decision for a job, nothing at all." Selaya ran her hands nervously through her glistening hair, "I suppose I'll just have to start like you were any other child."

It amazed Tsalina how quickly Selaya had forgotten about the goblins she had killed, but she would not forget. "But what about those goblins?"

Her voice sounded weak and shaky, and Selaya stopped and stared at her in annoyance, "Look, those goblins died, big deal. They stole and I killed 'em for it. Will you please stop thinking about them? You're making my job three times as hard as it has to be!"

In response, Tsalina threw her a disgusted look. "Don't you care at all?"

Selaya sucked in a deep breath and let it out. Maybe she was trying to restrain the urge to kill her 'apprentice', but at the moment, Tsalina couldn't care less. "Fine. I'll give you some advice, kid. My professor once told me, 'Kill or be killed'—that's all you can do."

Tsalina sighed again, "But, they couldn't have ki—"

Selaya turned flashing eyes on her, "Stop questioning it! I'm going to kill, not be killed, and if you can't accept that, you should learn to keep your mouth shut, you insolent girl." Tsalina frowned, thinking, _I could not kill others. I could not_. _But apparently you have no problem with it_. Selaya continued, "You don't understand anything. If you don't want to hurt anyone and just be plain useless to others, fine. You can be a mage!" Tsalina shrugged her shoulders. Using magic sounded a whole ton better than having to use heavy weapons anyway.

Selaya threw her arms in the air at Tsalina's vague happiness and exclaimed, "Fine! Congratulations, you're a mage. Tomorrow I'm bringing you to Master Glenn. He'll teach you either the art of the bow or throwing knives. Good riddance!" And with that Selaya lay down and threw a blanket over herself.

Tsalina smiled to herself, thinking _I either wanted to be a mage or a ranger anyway, so this works fine_. She stood up, still smiling, and stretched out her legs. _It's a shame I'm not allowed to skip the weapon stage of this ridiculous training. I can't believe Cornelius forgot to program me into a sixth level!_

* * *

_**Ravyn**_ thought the beginner town itself was rather dull. It was small and full of newbies who couldn't tell the difference between an arrow and a dagger even as it them in the gut. She saw several new thieves eyeing the pockets of her cloak, but apparently none of them dared to approach the sixth level striding confidently though the streets.

She stopped at the first food shop she found, eager to finish her trip and meet back up with Irinilia. She would have liked to have gone to the training ground, but she had been worried that another member of the Pallanén family would be working there, as she knew many of them did. All the women of her line were legendary warriors, and she had a feeling they would want to know why she was traveling around with a mage and a newbie instead of saving the world on a valiant quest. Altogether too awkward and uncomfortable, not to mention she had no desire to justify herself to them anyway. She knew she was a bit unconventional to her family—both in the game and in real life, she reflected.

"Hi, I'd like to get some pineapple and some tiramisu," she said to the flour-covered lady standing at the counter of the shop.

"Pineapple?" the woman sounded completely bewildered. "Why are you looking for pineapple?"

"It's a present for my friend," Ravyn explained.

"I should think the tiramisu would be enough," the woman said.

"Should you?" Ravyn said absently as she counted out coins into her hand. "I think a hundred gold pieces will be more than enough to cover the cost of both, don't you? Actually, give me three each, and I'll triple the gold." She pressed the coins into the woman's hand.

"Yes- yes, of course," the woman hurried into the back of the shop. Ravyn supposed she didn't make a lot of big sales in a newbie town like this—it took quite a few levels to build up the kind of money Cornelius had hacked for them.

The woman passed her the tiramisu, wrapped up in a pretty white box with a ribbon tied around it. "I made it all nice for your friend's present," she explained. "And here's the pineapple." She offered Ravyn a second small box.

"Thank you," Ravyn smiled and left the shop, her packages both tucked neatly under one arm.

She hadn't made it ten steps out of the shop when she felts something brush against her hip. In one quick movement her hand snapped to her side, her fingers wrapping around the small wrist of the hand grasping for her pocket.

A young blond girl wearing the gray newbie cloak—of course, practically everyone here did—gaped up at her. "Wow, that was amazing!"

Ravyn dropped the girl's hand. "If you're going to pickpocket someone, do it properly. Otherwise, they're probably going to break your wrist." She increased her pace as she headed out of town. Now she realized why Tylus had been so displeased about running into a group of newbies when he'd first arrived.

"Really? I didn't know that. This is my first character, so I'm totally new to this game," the girl trotted to keep up with Ravyn's longer and more practiced strides. "I guess you can already tell I'm a beginner, right? I have the cloak and I'm here in beginner town, so it's not like I'm trying to hide my newbie status. But you don't seem like me at all. You're much higher than that, aren't you?"

"Level six," Ravyn said. "Which is why you should not have tried to steal anything from me."

"Oh, I know that now, but I didn't know that before, which is why I tried it. You're not a mage, see, I can tell that much, so I know you're not going to fry me with a lightning bolt, and you looked nice so I felt bad about stealing from you but at least you didn't break my wrist, like you said other people would! See, you are very nice!"

Ravyn felt the girl brush against her side again and twisted away. "Put those fingers anywhere near my pocket again and I will stick them in a block of cement," she said slowly, enunciating each word. "I'm not _that_ nice, and I know all the pickpocket tricks, as I've tried most of them in my time. Go back to your beginner friends."

"You're a thief? You don't look like a thief."

"I'm not," Ravyn said. "Go away."

"My name's Lorena Elizabeth," the girl called after her as they separated at the city wall. "Put in a good word for me with the big official leader people, will you please? I need all the help I can get."

"You most definitely do," Ravyn muttered to herself, breaking into a run. It was one of the few things she would have to agree with Tylus on—newbies were really and truly irritating.

Irinilia was waiting for her outside the training camp. "We can stay in the cabins outside the school facility," she called as Ravyn approached. "I reserved one for you and me with a separate room for Tylus. Tsalina may be staying with us or she may end up spending the nights with her trainers, depending on what programs she decides to do." She waved a roll of crumpled paper in the air vaguely. "There's plenty we can do around here while we wait. It's going to be five days."

"That's not so bad, then," Ravyn said. "I've got the pineapple and tiramisu. We can have a party."

"They totally ripped us off with the training fee, though," Irinilia said as she and Ravyn started walking down the path towards the cabins. "Three thousand three hundred gold pieces per level up."

"That's stupid," Ravyn shifted her packages in her arms. "No beginner can pay that much."

"But we're not beginners and they know it," Irinilia said. "They know we can afford more so they're charging more."

"But we're not beginners," Ravyn repeated slowly, an idea slowly forming in her head as she remembered her encounter with Lorena Elizabeth the Newbie. "So… is there any reason why we couldn't use our free time and great level six skills to, um, reacquire what we give them for Tsalina's training?"

Irinilia stared at her for a moment, then a smile slowly crossed her features as she realized what Ravyn was suggesting. "I'd say it's a definite possibility."

* * *

_**Tylus**_ really hated newbies, but when Ravyn and Irinilia did not return after two hours of waiting, he decided he was better off braving out the crowds of inept players rather than attempting to complete the quest by himself.

An admininstrator stopped him as he tried to enter the training grounds. "Can I help you, uh, sir?" he asked.

"Yeah, you can, actually," Tylus said. "I'm looking for two level sixes, one an elven warrior and the other a mage."

"Ah, yes. Irinilia and Ravyn are their names, correct? They've reserved a cabin for the next five days. I can direct you there if you'd like."

Reserved a cabin here in noob city for five whole days? That could not be a good sign. "Directions would be great."

He soon found himself in front of a small wood cabin tucked into a small semicircle of pine trees, a pile of chopped wood leaning against the front wall. Tylus pushed open the door to see Ravyn and Irinilia sitting on one of the three beds inside, pouring over a crumpled old piece of paper that looked like a map, trying to see by the light coming from the cabin's two windows. Irinilia had a piece of tiramisu on a plate on her lap and she was eating it neatly with a fork. Ravyn held a piece of pineapple in her free hand and occasionally took a small bite off the end. "We need to talk," Tylus said brusquely when they didn't react to his arrival.

Irinilia turned to face him. "Oh hey Tylus. Sorry, we meant to come find you, but we got a little distracted." She waved vaguely at the food and papers around her.

Ravyn didn't even look up. "Shut the door behind you."

Tylus ignored her. "What are we going to do about Tsalina?"

"What do you mean, _do_?" Irinilia asked, at the same time Ravyn said, "I asked you to shut the door."

Tylus took several steps into the room, not touching the door. It was too dark in the cabin without the sun from the open doorway anyway. "Well, she's going to be training here for five days, and that's supposed to be the advanced speed course for experienced gamers, isn't it?"

"They told us," Irinilia nodded.

Tylus let out an exasperated sigh. "So I think we should just go ahead without her."

Both Ravyn and Irinilia gaped at him. "No," Ravyn said finally. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"What do you mean, _why not_?" Ravyn snapped. "We're friends, we're a team, we stick together!" She paused for a moment. "Not to mention she only has to train, thus forcing us to stay here, because _you_ screwed up to begin with. And will you please shut the door!"

"But think about it!" Tylus leaned forward on the bed post. "We have to finish a quest in the fifteen days we're given to play. We've already lost one. If we have to spend five more days here waiting for Tsalina, we'll only have nine days left for the quest."

"We can do it in nine days," Irinilia said.

"But we should have had fifteen! We're left with sixty percent of the time they expect us to have and think we'll need to finish," Tylus was really aggravated now. Did he have to hammer his point into their heads? "Listen, it's not like we're abandoning her here. We can buy a teleportation stone for her, and she can catch up later."

"What do you not understand about _no_?" Ravyn demanded. "It's a simple word. Two letters. No."

Tylus glared at her. "My extensive intelligence understands the word, it's the reason behind it that isn't making any sense."

Ravyn stood up and brushed past him to yank the door shut. It crashed loudly, and Tylus had to blink several times to adjust his eyes to lack of light. "Do you want a piece of pineapple?" Ravyn asked abruptly.

"Huh?"

"Pineapple," she repeated, pointing to an open white box on a small table nearby. "I bought pineapple. Want some?"

"Uh, not right now, thanks," Tylus was thrown by the conversation change.

"Sit down," Ravyn put the box back on the table. "Irinilia and I have this idea, and we were hoping you'd want to do it with us."

Tylus raised his eyebrows but didn't sit down.

"These are the maps of the training facilities," Irinila indicated the papers spread out across the bedcovers. "Now, we're feeling that they might have ripped us off slightly with their extensively high training fees, and we're hoping to even the score a bit."

"Meaning…?" It already was starting to sound like a bad idea.

"We're going to break into their main offices and take all the money we can find," Ravyn answered immediately. Catching his criticizing look, she added, "Trust me, they probably won't even miss it. We can even pass it out to the poor people if it makes you feel better."

"It's not the moral issue that's concerning!" Tylus said. "What are you planning to do when they catch you in the office with money spilling out of your pockets?"

"They're not going to catch _us_," Ravyn corrected. "Unless you're planning to just sit around 'noob city' for five days and do nothing?"

Tylus stared at her for a moment, then let out a long and gusty sigh. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to complete the quest on his own anyway, and Ravyn's logic was perfect. He just didn't have to give her the pleasure of his acknowledging it. "What's your plan, then?"

* * *

**Tsalina's training scene was written by Glowfish36 and Selaya and Tsalina are both entirely her property. If you liked that part, check out her stories.**


End file.
